New bus routes mapped out to Nanaimo Airport and Cedar

Bus service to Nanaimo Airport is close to rollout as a 5,900-hour RDN Transit expansion begins in January.

The RDN board approved the expansion this past summer and the new Route 78 will provide service to YCD from downtown Nanaimo. According to an RDN Transit service notice, the route begins at the bus loop on Front Street, heading south down the highway onto Twelfth Street to South Parkway Plaza, Tenth Street, then back on the highway until South Wellington Road, where it travels south until a stop before Morden Road.

From there, the route proceeds east on Morden, back on the highway, turning off on Vowels Road and then onto Hallberg Road, Timberlands Road, and back onto the highway to the airport.

The route then heads back towards Nanaimo, turning off on Lawlor and School House roads. The route then goes north along School House, onto the highway, onto Tenth, Morden, Twelfth, Junction Avenue, back onto Tenth onto the highway and on back to downtown Nanaimo.

Route 78 will run Monday to Friday with buses five times a day, according to Darren Marshall, RDN manager of transit operations.

Another new route, Route 8, will see service from Cedar to Vancouver Island University. Beginning at the university’s transit exchange, buses on this route will head west down Fourth Street, south onto Bruce Avenue, west onto Tenth, onto Twelfth with a stop on Lawlor Road. From there it heads down the highway to Cedar Road, through Yellow Point and Gould roads, north onto Woobank Road, east onto Holden Corso Road, Harmac Road, onto Cedar and back toward the university with a stop by South Parkway Plaza.

Marshall said everything is on pace for January implementation.

“All the new bus stops are being put in place as we speak and we’ll be fully operational on Sunday, Jan. 5 for Sunday-level service and then the first 78 will be operating on [Jan. 6],” said Marshall.